The controversy over the Frankfurt Book Fair, of which China is a Guest of Honor this year, continues, as the CHinese government barred writer Liao Yiwu from traveling to Germany to attend. From Der Spiegel:
Chinese author Liao Yiwu, who is also a reporter, musician and poet, has been banned by the Beijing regime from traveling to Germany, he told reporters on Wednesday.
“Chinese state security officials told me that I will not be allowed to fly to Germany,” Liao told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, adding that he had received a formal invitation from Germany and also had a valid passport, but now would have to stay in China after all.
[…] Earlier this month, Herbert Wiesner, the head of the German chapter of the prestigous PEN association of writers argued in an interview with Berlin’s RBB public radio that Germany should not allow itself to be blackmailed by China at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair and that it had been too early to give the country an invitation to the event. “We could have learned that from the Olympics,” he said. “I think it’s a bit overhasty. In many respects, China is very mature, but obviously not in this one.”
